new thread
unfortunately, i've got no pics, but here's a short history that, some who want long hair, might find interesting.
from about the 8th grade to about the 12th i wanted long hair. the last year of high school, i'd had about a good 14 months of growth that i was ready to let grow more freely.
at school i had to be careful with how it was styled to hide the length.
anyway....after high school it grew and grew and grew.....mid way down my back at the longest.
after about 2 years i started to having it trimmed regularly to keep it from looking out of control. i wasn't going for a neat look just didn't want to look as though i were going caveman.
that was back in '95.
over the years i very much enjoyed the long hair. wearing it tied back most of the time for safety reasons at work. the rest of the time letting it down. a couple of times it got cut short enough to grab 2 fists of hair past the hair tie. this was the shortest.
it was a cool feeling to be able to see inches of hair on the floor and not really worry AT ALL about it as i had lots more to spare. the fear of getting it cut too short was gone. there was way too much.
occasionally i'd think back to the mind numbing hassle it was to get it long and it would make me cringe.
but...there were some down sides.
there were days where the weight of the hair would feel like i had weights tied to my hair....and at the end of the day my scalp would hurt from either having it tied back (not tight) or it just hanging.
the other hassle was the weather...i live in a hot climate and can never find the right expletive to describe how hot long hair can be. ugg!
on the note of weather, i spend lots of leisure time outdoors and the sun faded, somewhat, some nice and very dark brown hair. the real problem wasn't the fading but that only the hair exposed got faded. so it looked like i'd had a bad dye job by a blind stylist.
some mentioned wearing a hat....but long hair and hats always look so dopey.
anyway, the last few months i'd started to really take a look at my long hair and realized that while _i_ really liked it....it didn't really look so good.
over the years i'd had it styled to look different ways. but being that it's very full and very thick and wavy, styling was not something i wanted to commit to for the _rest of my life_.
it WAS nice to be able to wake up, tie it back and go.
but when i really took in the shape of just long hair on my head and my features....i started to notice that it never looked very good.
i don't mean good in the conservative sense.....i mean good as in....modern.
so about a month ago....i was on a trip out of town and finally decided to get a full on hair cut. not something that would have me looking like a junior republican senator from texas.
but something that would leave lots of length and have the hair off my shoulders.
in truth, i was ready for it. i wasn't apprehensive AT ALL. i wanted to get something modern and versatile but that still showed length and my natural hair's features and color.
so i went to a stylist who still does work from GQ and details. i told him i wanted modern. he looked over the hair and was able to tell me exactly the sorts of problems i'd run into with my hair over the years and some of the stuff i'd tried to have other stylists do but that came out wrong. amazing! i was stunned he was able to figure all these _specific_ things out about my hair.
so, he started to chop and it was a weird sensation. before i'd have reach for a pair of scissors and threatened bodily harm! HA! but that day i was really tired of all the hassle that came with longhair. even the stuff i hadn't mentioned.
at the end of the 2 hour trimming it was done. he spun me in the chair and i was sooooooooooooooo happy with what i saw. it's hard to describe as it had be cut so that i could get several different styles out of it.
these are the two closest pics i could find. i'm a big rally fan so these were easy. same as you see but with a shorter neck line and down to my lips in front and at the sides. it has that grown out and non-trimmed look.
flickr.com/photos/tripoli8647/1526513776/
flickr.com/photos/davidpaniagua/2307111812/
anyway, i LOVE it.....the stylist did great work and unlike the silly, reserved, conservative, _boring_, lifeless, cuts i had to have back in school, this is the perfect mix of length and a style.
i can't see myself ever growing it out again. it's just too perfect.
the funny thing is that there was a very real response. no one i currently know now has ever known me to have long hair. the women _loved_ it. these were the _same_ women who always told me that they'd freak if i ever cut my hair. suddenly they were always reaching up to put their hands on it or play with it.
and don't think these are up tight types who are looking for someone with a level head to marry and have kids with.....that's not my crowd. these are totally independent women who always seem to prefer independent men.
i got quite a few dates out of it. not a bad deal.
so in retrospect. the long hair was great but really lacked any definitive style or expression. i think i had it long, for too long, and like many things in life, they just become a fixture if they are not allowed to evolve.
If you have what hairstylists call "thin hair," cutting it regularly is mainly your only option; becuase when you don't it tends to look like you might live in a refrigerator box in the alley. Esp. if you insist on adding an "untended-to" beard/moustache to the mix.
Longish, as in shoulder-length; is perfect for most applications. It's short enough to get by for many jobs, but long enough to qualify as "long."
If you have very thick hair (as most often seen in Oriental people and some Hispanics); you will end up with great long hair with next to no effort.
On the subject, I have to say that there's a reason dying long hair costs a lot--it's worth it to not have orange hair.
This depends; really.
if you're Johnny Depp; or the sort of guy who has the sexy, classy, or just plain "cool" vibe eminating from you--you can wear anything and still look good.
The issue of hats. Again, you get what you pay for. NO baseball caps; they always look silly. They ruin the long hair thing.
Stevie Ray Vaughn-type (black felt cowboyish) hat= cool; IF IF IF you have the "vibe" to be able to pull off what would be seen as rediculous clothing on the wrong person.
I have one of these, and lots of people have complimented me on it.
This type of hat is ONLY for the fall, or on cooler days. If it's 90 you'll look stupid, and if it's 30 degrees out, wear a stretchy wool hat and bring along an anti-static brush.
And the other type of hat is like a fedora. Keeps the sun and rain off you, and is a nice conversation piece.
Try shoulder-length; the best of both worlds. If any guys give you mess about it, just say your girlfriend loves your hair.
Someone tell me what's so good about whatever's "new?"
Best band still playing out: either Rush or the Stones.
Best music ever written? As Zappa said, "All the great music has already been written by guys wearing wigs and stuff."
Best movie: maybe "Casino?" Even tho I hate mafia movies.
Best book? Probably written by either Chuck Klosterman or someone who's been dead at least 10 years.
And the best games are the ones you don't need a 250-page instruction manual to run. Well, the computers sucked back then, but I like the old ways and feel they're underrated.
Point being, that I seriously miss the long hair thing, myself. Not so much permed 80's near pompadors, but the feathered hairstyle. It works best with thick hair, and it tends to reqire hairspray, but a very good hairspray, and no one will even notice it.
For the record, I'm the "brush it and go" type; as opposed to the woman who brings a curling iron to go camping.
i laughed sooo hard at the fridge comment! thanks!
nope. my hair is on the thick side and full. sometimes not a great combination.
i went to one stylist years ago.....who suggested thinning....i went with it as, at the time.....i had lots of hair to spare. it was thinned and felt nice...it was lighter and easier to tie back. and tying it back was always a hassle since it was very thick and full. i had to use two to hold it in place.
at any rate, when my girlfriend, at the time, saw it....she later asked me: are you losing your hair?
i wasn't sure what she was getting at so i asked if it looked like i was.
she said she could see through it much easier than before and that it didn't look as full.
i took a closer look and sure enough, it was looking thin.
the stylist in portland said he could see that it was not thinned properly. he said it was probably done in too aggressive a manner and that the result is not hair that lays a bit better but that it looks like it's thinning.
he did thin my hair but he said it was mostly on the ends and only to add a hint of a months worth of growth.
yeah....when i was growing it out, shoulder length was nice.
thing was, as full as it is, it tends to puff out when it's too short. shoulder length was too short for my hair.
thinning was the option and i did try it at that length too but again.....it looked like i was losing my hair.
i'm not living in a great metropolis, so _good_ stylists are hard to come by. i tell people that i had to fly to portland to get a good hair cut. ha!
yeah, hispanic (sal_bass 'cause i'm a big Seinfled fan), and you're right, it did look good long. and it really was no effort at all.
mostly it was the other stuff that got to me.
yeah....i'm not much for putting chemicals on my hair or scalp. as safe as they have proven to be. if there's a such thing as an "ivory guy", i'd be one of them.
that's up for debate, and i'll get some pics as soon as i figure out why the battery on my camera won't take a charge.
but i understand what you mean. i took some time to look for longish hair styles when i decided to get it cut....just to see if there was anything out there i'd missed.
orlando bloom seems to have gone through some different cuts as well as depp. thing is, even for going out, i like to keep things simple. those styles seem to require a product of some sort and one of the great things about long hair is that i never needed anything but shampoo. that was nice.
while i do play guitar, texas blues are not in my repertoire so i'll leave SRVs legacy to stand alone.
but again, i get what you mean.
if you watch simpsons at all....there is a character named jimbo jones....he's one of the three bullies. every time i see someone around here wearing a wool cap in the summer (which is basically all year) i'm reminded of jimbo jones.
fedoras are nice. they remind me of indiana jones.
yeah....i think the plan is to let it grow out just as it is and see what it looks like in 7 months or so.
the guys at the shop all told me it looked really good. they told me i looked younger. i laughed cause tend to look a bit younger than i really am and the long hair seems to add some age. and that was a bonus of having long hair, i was told i looked at least 10 years older.
modern can be a blend of older styles as well as newer to create something new and interesting. but it takes a very gifted person to make the blend happen just right. so it doesn't end up looking like the inside of an themed restaurant.
consider this guy's work. he fabricates bicycles with a method that's thought to be antiquated. and he makes them one at a time.
but the materials (what are known as super steels, for their impressive strength and VERY light weight), colors, components, and overall focus are thoroughly modern.
vanillabicycles.com
i've never been a rush fan.
as for the stones....i prefer everything pre-exile on main street.
since nothing new really gets me, it's talk/news radio for me. so long as it's informative and not slanted clap trap radio.
haven't seen it. i've been told stone does lots of screaming.
a few at the top of my list would be:
primer
glengarry glen ross
dogville
confessions of a dangerous mind
i heart huckabees
lovecraft wrote some great stuff and even though barker and king cite his work often, he's relatively unknown.
among more american literary circles, he's legend. both my am. lit. profs in college cited his work regularly.
yeah....i wish long hair was the norm for business. i'd be more accepted.
i worked for the phone company here...this when my hair was long...and it wasn't a big deal cause it was always tied back. but ugg....talk about a corporate environ!
of course, the more people a company caters to, the more benign they have to appear.
well, it looks very nice. it compliments your features so well. being someone who has curly/wavy hair....i've always admired straight/slightly wavy hair on women. it always looks to fall so gracefully and adds such mellow quality.
do you find this with men?
i have to ask though, what's the shortest you've even had it?
did you like it at all?
what percentage of the time is it down and what percentage is it tied back?
how long have you had that cut in the photo?
i once asked these questions of my female friends and the answers were quite interesting, as they tended to mimic the answers from my male friends who also have long hair.